OK, on first glance some might think this looks a bit thin but that’s because a lot of the names on here mightn’t be familiar. I actually love this card now I’ve done a bit of homework. It’s fucking quality. Shev is one of my favourites anyway but then you’ve got a fantastic co-main and a few very interesting newcomers. You never know for sure how fights are going to play out but this should be a really fun night of fights.

Valentina Shevchenko vs Liz Carmouche 2 is the main event. A rematch of a 2010 fight in a promotion called C3 Fights. They were both undefeated going in, Shev was 7-0, Carmouche was 4-0. Carmouche won that night on a doctor stoppage. Of course, that’s a long time ago now and both women are in a completely different place in their careers.

Following her first MMA defeat to Carmouche, Shevchenko bounced between MMA and Kickboxing over the next few years. On the MMA side of things, she won her next 4 fights and was signed by the UFC in late 2015. In her Octagon debut, she faced Sarah Kaufman on short notice and won by decision. She then went 5-2 over her next 7 fights with the only losses being two highly competitive decisions to Amanda Nunes. The fact Nunes, who has been destroying all the top women’s names over the last few years, couldn’t finish Shevchenko over a combined 8 rounds says a lot about her. But it was when she dropped down to flyweight that she really became a force. She butchered Priscilla Cachoeira, schooled Joanna Jedrzejczyk over 5 rounds to become the champion and then in her last fight in May, she did this to Jessica Eye...

Nearly decapitated her with a vicious headkick. Shevchenko is a stone cold killer and easily one of my favourite fighters in the game right now.

In 2013, Carmouche made history when she took part in the first ever women’s fight in the UFC. She challenged Ronda Rousey so she was the B-Side, but it’s a milestone moment that she’ll always be attached to. And to her credit, she didn’t come to lose or just take part. She had Ronda is some real bother early in their fight with this rear naked neck crank thingybob...

Of course, Ronda escaped and Carmouche was tapping to the armbar shortly after but it was a valiant effort. She’s had her ups and downs in the 6 years since, going 5-3 in her next 8 fights. She had some losses but she also managed to beat current strawweight champ Jessica Andrade in 2013 and she’s now won 4 of her last 5.

Cool little backstory with them rematching after 9 years, but let’s be honest, Carmouche is only getting this shot because there aren’t many interesting challengers currently at 125lbs. And the ones who were there, Shev’s already buzzsawed through like a hot knife through butter. Carmouche isn’t a bad fighter by any means but points wins over Lucie Pudilová and Jennifer Maia don’t exactly scream ‘title shot’. It’s purely because Shev needs bodies to devour. Despite the result of the first fight, I’d be very surprised if Shevchenko didn’t even the score here. And the fact she’s getting the opportunity to avenge her first MMA defeat is probably going to motivate her even more.

Vicente Luque vs Mike Perry is going to be complete and utter fucking mayhem. This is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** easy, it’s a no brainer. I’ve been singing Luque’s praises for a while now. I think he’s a real darkhorse and one of the unsung badasses in the UFC right now. He doesn’t talk himself up much, he’s quite unassuming and laid back. Which is probably why he doesn’t get much attention but he’s a really good fighter and he’s also consistently exciting to watch. He’s 27 years old, 16-6-1 and he’s 9-1 in his last 10 and finished all 9 wins. The only loss was on points to Leon Edwards. Not saying he’s a future champion or anything, we need to see him mix with the top boys yet. But he’s been beating a lot of the real hitters and tough scrappers of the UFC midcard for a bit now, and looking good doing it. Guys like Niko Price, Chad Laprise, Belal Muhammad, these are tough dudes and he’s stopped them all. He also holds a first round TKO victory over Thiago Santos back in 2012! He’s legit. His fight with Bryan Barberena in February was insane as well.

They went to war in a fight that was just wall to wall chaos. Easily in my Top 3 for FOTY so far. I’d probably have it at #2 behind Adesanya vs Gastelum at the moment. A crazy fight. And Mike Perry is the perfect opponent for a guy like Luque to have another barnburner with. Perry is never going to trouble the title picture but he’s always great value in these types of fights. He’s dangerous, powerful, ultra aggressive and it’s clear he’s wired a bit funny. This should be a hell of a ruck.

Humberto Bandenay vs Luiz Garagorri is a complete mystery for me. Haven’t seen much Bandenay and I’ve seen nothing of this Garagorri cat. Bandenay has fought in the UFC a few times. He’s 24 years old, Peruvian and has a 14-6-1 record. My only real memory of him is from one of the UFC Mexico cards a while back. I think his dad had just passed away very recently and he just came in and wrecked some bloke with a knee in seconds. It was quite a moment. Garagorri, from bits I’m reading, sounds fairly promising. He’s 30 years old and unbeaten at 11-0 with 9 finishes. He’s from Uruguay as well so this could be a bit of a coming out party for him if it goes well.

Ilir Latifi vs Volkan Oezdemir has been scheduled for a couple of different cards now and been postponed or moved. Should be a banger though. Latifi lost a decision to Corey Anderson in his last fight in December but he was on good form before that with the OSP and Tyson Pedro wins. And Volkan’s coming off 3 losses on the trot, although many thought he won his last fight with Dominick Reyes on the London card in March. Regardless, two dangerous powerhouses with a point to prove. I really like this matchup, hopefully it goes ahead this time.

Rodolfo Vieira vs Oskar Piechota is one I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on. Vieira is making his UFC debut here. He’s a high level BJJ black-belt, 4 time BJJ world champion and 7 time BJJ World Cup champion. His nickname is ‘The Blackbelt Hunter’ due to him beating black-belts back when he was still a brown-belt himself. He’s a right physical specimen as well. Built like a brick shithouse and was known in grappling for just bulldozing his way through fuckers’ guards and dominating them. He transitioned over to MMA in 2016, trains at ATT and made his debut in 2017. He’s gone 5-0 since with 5 finishes, 4 inside a round. I can’t wait to see what he can do in the UFC. He’s still only 29 as well, so he’s potentially got a good few years in him yet. He’s been matched with Poland’s Oskar Piechota. A BJJ black-belt himself under Robert Drysdale. He’s 29 years old with a 11-1-1 MMA record. Very intrigued by this fight. Vieira is an animal by all accounts but this is a step up and on a big stage.

Enrique Barzola vs Bobby Moffett might be decent. I think Barzola is probably a little bit underrated. He won TUF Latin America back in 2015 and has had some good fights since. His record currently stands at 15-4-1. Not future champ material or anything but a solid little fighter. Bobby ‘Wolfman’ Moffett is 14-4 and looking to get back in the W column. He lost to Bryce Mitchell last time out and got a controversial win over Chas Skelly before that.

Ciryl Gane vs Raphael Pessoa pits two UFC newcomers against each other in what looks like a real battle of the bulls on paper. There’s always a little bit of buzz whenever you see some new blood in the heavyweight division and if nothing else, this pair certainly look the part. Gane is 29 years old out of Paris, France. He’s a monster of a man at 6’5”, with an 83in reach and he cuts to 265lbs. Jeez. He’s only 3-0 with 3 finishes, so he’s raw. But he’s already won the heavyweight title of the TKO promotion in Canada. Pessoa is 30 years old, Brazilian and is also undefeated at 9-0 with 7 finishes. He’s not quite as humongous as Gane but he’s no midget himself at 6’4” and around 250lbs. Just looked up a few brief clips of these two and...yeah, I can’t see this getting out of the first round. Someone’s getting ironed out. These two were actually supposed to fight on a TKO show in March but it got cancelled.

Tecia Torres vs Marina Rodriguez could be alright, I suppose. I very rarely enjoy Torres’ fights though. She’s got some skills but she’s dull to watch more often than not for me. She’ll probably be even more dull and risk averse in this one as well as she desperately needs a win after going 0-3 in her last 3. Rodriguez could be a tricky fight for her as well. She’s undefeated at 11-0-1 and put a right beating on Jessica Aguilar last time out.

Rogério Bontorin vs Raulian Paiva, I’m not familiar enough with these guys to really be into. But could be good. Bontorin is 15-1 and had a successful UFC debut early this year, winning a decision over Magomed Bibulatov. Paiva is 18-2, trains at Alpha Male and lost a split decision to Kai Kara-France in his debut at UFC 234 in February. I also remember there was a really sad story going into that fight about Paiva’s girlfriend being murdered. That was horrible to read. Could be a good fight between two young flyweights.

Rafael Fiziev vs Alex Da Silva is a fight I’m very much into, mostly to see Fiziev back in there. He’s from Kazakhstan, trains in Thailand and also with Pavel Fedotov (Valentina Shevchenko’s coach) and was a Kickboxer before jumping into MMA and going 6-0. He made his UFC debut on the Russia card in April and I was buzzing to see him fight after reading up on him and seeing this...

Proper Neo from The Matrix defence, that.

Anyway, after all my hyping him up, he got done in a round by Magomed Mustafaev. I’m hoping to see better from him here. To be fair, Mustafaev is a tough debut for anyone. This time he’s in with Alex Da Silva. A Brazilian with a 20-2 record with all 20 wins coming inside the distance. So another hard test for Fiziev, hopefully he wins and sticks around because there’s fun to be had with him on the roster. Fiziev vs Lando Vannata definitely needs to happen at some point.

Alexey Kunchenko vs Laureano Staropoli could be a sleeper. Two guys who have kind of slipped through on the undercard without much fanfare but I think both have looked a handful from what we’ve seen so far. Kunchenko is Russian, 35 years old, 20-0 unbeaten, 14 finishes and wins over battle tested UFC veterans Yushin Okami and Thiago Alves in his last 2 outings. Staropoli is 26 years old, Argentinian with a 9-1 record. He also beat Thiago Alves in his last fight. This is a real solid fight between two men who probably don’t have a queue of guys lining up to fight them.

Rachael Ostovich vs Veronica Macedo is a nothing fight, to be honest. Ostovich is Hawaiian and has a terrible 4-5 MMA record. Macedo is Venezuelan with pretty much an equally as woeful 5-3-1 record. It sounds harsh but this is pure piss break stuff.

Usually a fight like this would be a ‘loser leaves’ thing but the cynic in me thinks they’ll probably keep them around just because they’re both lookers.

Geraldo De Freitas vs Chris Gutierrez is your standard dark match shit. Might be alright but it’ll play out to the sound of crickets in front of a load of empty chairs. De Freitas is Brazilian, 12-4 with 9 finishes. Gutierrez is from Texas, 13-4-1 record.

And that’s UFC Uruguay. Like I said, an excellent card. A chance to see one of the best fighters in the game right now in Shevchenko, a surefire blood and guts war in the co-main with Luque vs Perry, you’ve got Latifi vs Volkan and the debuts of a BJJ beast in Vieira and 2 new monster heavyweights in Gane and Pessoa. What’s not to like?

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Yeah, Luque vs Perry is the one. That’s going to be a scrap and a half. But I really like this card as a whole. I think it’s going massively under the radar. I even saw a writer on one of the big MMA sites (MMAMania, I think) saying it’s a bad card. It’s not though. It’s exactly what a Fight Night should be. You never know how fights are going to play out on the night but you’ve got a title match in the main event, as close to a guaranteed barnburner in the co-main, you’ve got Latifi vs Volkan and you’ve got a couple of really intriguing debuts on there as well. For a Fight Night, I think this is strong. I don’t know what people are expecting from a free TV Fight Night. It’s like if a card isn’t full of ‘names’ now, a lot of people write it off as a shit card. There has been some weak shows this year, granted, but I like the look of this one a lot.

Shevchenko doing her thing is always worth tuning in for. And this one has the history of Carmouche beating her the first time they fought. Luque vs Perry, as we’ve said, is a pure slobberknocker on paper. Latifi vs Volkan is a fun powerhouse battle. It’s good stuff.

You’ve also got these 2 fuckers debuting though;

Rodolfo Vieira on the left there. BJJ black-belt. 4 time BJJ world champion. 7 time BJJ World Cup champion. 100-9-1 grappling record with 68 submissions. Master guard passer. He’s 5-0 in MMA so far, all finishes. And in his last fight he submitted a guy who was 10-0 in around 2 minutes. He’s a big bastard for 185 as well. Look at him compared to Jacare in that photo there. And Jacare’s no small middleweight himself. Hopefully he’s getting the weight cut right. But yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do.

Then there’s this guy...

Ciryl Gane. 6’5”, cuts to make 265, 83in reach. He’s a training partner of Francis Ngannou, he’s 3-0 with 3 finishes in MMA and he became the TKO heavyweight champ in just his second fight. He also went 13-0 as a Kickboxer. From the limited footage I’ve seen he doesn’t seem to be a massive one punch hitter (either that or his opponents in the clips I saw are crazy durable) but he moves really fucking well for a man of his size and he strings together striking combinations beautifully. He seems to finish fights more by overwhelming with flurries of different strikes. As always with striking specialists, fuck knows when it comes to takedown defence. But at worst he’s going to be a fun addition to the heavyweight division. On paper it could be a tough debut though, his opponent is also undefeated, a big sod and more experienced.

So yeah, I think this card is a lot better than it’s been given credit for.

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Complete one way traffic for Shevchenko in the main event. Wasn’t a good fight, just never got going at all. Carmouche just couldn’t pull the trigger and Shev never really took it out of second gear. If Andrade beats Zhang on the China show in a few weeks, I can honestly see them doing the Shevchenko vs Andrade champ vs champ match. Just because who’s left for Valentina to beat at 125 right now? And while 115 is a bit healthier for contenders, Jedrzejczyk vs Waterson is already booked and Suarez could probably do with another fight or two before stepping up. I’m done with this ‘champ champ’ nonsense but purely as a fight I’d be well up for Shev vs Andrade. She’s got to get past Weili Zhang first though, obviously.

Luque vs Perry was fun, although not the FOTY contender it could’ve been. Thought this was actually the best Perry has looked to date. Wasn’t sure who’d won when the decision was about to be read out. Actually thought Perry might’ve won but Luque might’ve nicked it with that guillotine and all the blood at the end. Perry’s nose is fucking trashed...

Christ almighty.

Luque calling for the Wonderboy fight, good fight but it’s a tricky one for Luque. I think Ponzinibbio is a better matchup. For Luque and for us to watch. When Perry heals up I want Perry vs Robbie Lawler. It’s time to just sign off on that madness.

Volkan Oezdemir looked great. Best overall showing he’s had in the UFC for me easy and against a tough guy. Latifi got fucked up. That whole second round was just an assault and everything Volkan threw seemed to connect and hurt Latifi. Volkan needed a performance like that badly. I’d do Volkan against Aleksandar Rakic now. Would be an awesome fight and it’s a logical next step up for Rakic coming off the Manuwa win.

Enjoyed the debut of Rodolfo Vieira. He didn’t have an easy matchup, Piechota was no cakewalk, but Vieira got it done. He’s not the finished article but I liked what we saw and the finish was perfect.

Highlight of the prelims for me was the Cyril Gane debut. Again, like Vieira, he’s not the finished product. He’s only 4-0. But so far, so good. Put away an undefeated heavy hitter in a round here and he’s got a varied and high output striking style that not many heavyweights have or would be used to facing. The fact that he looks like the long lost French brother of Anthony Joshua doesn’t hurt either.

Thought Gilbert Burns looked really good. Considering he took the fight on very late notice, coming in and handing Kunchenko his first loss after 20 fights unbeaten is impressive stuff.

Was sad to see Polyana Viana get armbarred quick on the prelims as well that’s 3 losses in a row so she’s probably gone now. Only win she’s had since signing with the UFC was when she battered that mugger in Brazil.

Pretty good show all in all. Although the lacklustre main event is probably all people will be talking about.

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I skipped the main event, sounds like i made the right choice. Luque/Perry was predictably great though, the crowd felt lukewarm for such a good fight but it delivered. Thought Luque was a deserving winner. He's a guy who deserves cult fan favorite status in the UFC, what a beast.

Enjoyed the Bandenay/Garagorri fight too. Always nice to hear a crowd get behind the hometown guy, its probably what led to the more muted response to the co-main. Garagorri aint no world beater but he'll have some entertaining fights.

I thought the ref. could have stepped in to stop Volkan/Latifi before it actually ended. Latifi was a sitting duck waiting to be KO's. Thought the ol' Some Fucker looked pretty bad last night, dunno if it was because Volkan constantly hurt him or if he just had a bit of a shocker.

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I was coming on here with the first thing in my head also being to mention Mike Perry's nose. Fucking hell, he got his face caved in. Perry could well be heading for the operating table after that one. I wouldn't have liked to been in his position when the doctor started looking at that in the dressing room. A really close fight too that I thought Perry had won, and probably only lost it when he was stuck in that choke at the end.

Were there about 150 people at that show on Saturday night? It was like a graveyard at times and the audience were shite, usually only making any noise (negative, obviously) whenever fighters decided to clinch for five seconds.

Barzola Vs Moffett was a brilliant fight, I really enjoyed that one. It was really close too but I gave two rounds to Barzola as well.

Volkan outclassed Latifi. He just ran through him in the second. He should really be on a two fight win streak now as well, after what I felt should have been a clear as day decision win over Reyes in march. I like Wand's idea of a fight with Rakic. That's either a good next step for Rakic, or completes Volkan's rehab.

The main event was boring, but Shevchenko showed her class again, especially by shutting down Carmouche without it looking like it really required any effort. I'm quite happy for Shevchenko to continue on just swatting away contenders and really marking her territory on this division, rather than jumping about weight classes for champ Vs champ fights. Valentina Vs Andrade would be a great fight, but one that I would hope they hold off on and only do if both are still champion at the end of next year or something.

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I only watched the Perry fight, but by middle-England, it was a good scrap. Obviously will now be infamous due to the nose injury, which Big Match John scoffs at.

There was a tweet by a US wrestling Olympian (not Kurt Angle) which said something like "everytime I think about stepping in the octagon I see something like this and I'm like Naw". About perfectly sums it up. I'm not only too soft but too vain to contemplate even sniffing a gym from 500 yards away.

Also, credit to Perry for giving the nitwits in the crowd the finger when they started booing.

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Yeah, that was Jordan Burroughs who tweeted that. I think it summed up a lot of peoples’ thoughts but when it’s coming from an animal like Burroughs it really says something.

And I was glad to see him flip the crowd off when they booed. I find Perry a bit of a knuckle dragging div but you can’t help but respect the way he fights. Like WeeAl, I found the crowd a bit dead as well. And it wasn’t like the fights were shit. Weird as well because usually when the UFC go to a new country for the first couple of times the crowds are buzzing.

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yeh, Perry is the man. He alternates wins and losses but hes become a nailed on fan favorite the last few years. There's plenty of better fighters than Mike Perry but there's few of them id rather see fight.